Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Support Group
Find support with others who have gone through a traumatic experience. Whether you have chronic or acute PTSD, we are here for you.
Hey everyone! I'm new to DailyStrength. Up until now i've been just reading other people's posts and trying to help through stories of my own experiences and trying to help through my opinions and advice. 3 months ago I was in a motorcycle on the freeway that should have killed me. Cut off on the freeway going 70mph, slid over a hundred feet. And by the grace of God and those loved ones that hae passed, I got up and walked away. Had severe road rash over 40% of mybody, torn PCL in my knee, damaged rotator cuff, extreme whiplash and broken foot but hey, when doctors and nurses tell me repeatedly that I should be dead, I guess I shouldn't complain about a bunch of bumps and bruises. Since the accident, I have night terrors, I can't go on the freeway that I wrecked on and it's taken its toll on me emotionally. Has anyone else been through something similar and has advice on what helped them or is helping them? Thanks for reading.
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Hey all, i know its been quite awhile since i posted on here. Its been a summer all right. Its been something else........... You know how they say not to open the can of worms? Well a few months ago i decided to find out what my due date would have been for my first baby, the one conceived by r***. My baby would have been due on March 4th of 2006. They would be 20 years old. I was R**** on June...
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Welcome to the Perseid meteor showers, the "biggies" usually every year. (The Leonids beat 'em one year IMHO).AND today much of the northern hemisphere will see 5 to 99% solar eclipse. How cool is that? Your best bet is to be in the UK or norhtern Spain, where totality is excellent before sundown. Me, I'll get a super duper tiny itty bitty slice of it, so little that it won't be noticeable. New...
Do you have a therapist trained in trauma? If not I think you should find one...here helps, too but not like a therapist can. They might have to do some exposure therapy with you or EMDR.
Grounding techniques help...
ANd you can complain of physical pain. Just b/c you're not dead doesn't mean you're not *in pain*. I hate when docs do that sort of thing. Lucky to be alive? Yes. Allowed to say "This sucks, ow!"? Yes.
I had 2 near death experiences growing up as a missionary kid in a war zone. One was a car bombing my family survived when I was 9. The other was being misidentified as an enemy combatant in my own neighborhood by an army patrol when I was 15. The officer in charge decided to execute me on my knees in the street in front of others he was interrogating, but his sidearm jammed twice.
I had lots of weekly conventional therapy and meds for 12 years for what stuck with me from those near death experiences. Mostly they helped me maintain, but not progress. Progress for me came when I happened to move for a job, and a local VA doctor took me on as his patient in the evenings. I found out there is a big difference between a good therapist and a good trauma therapist.
He helped me so much that I went on to be a hospital chaplain in a Chicago ER after that to help people who came to us directly from car accidents, sexual assaults, and gunshot wounds. I wasn't "cured," I just got some of that PTS wisdom folks talk about in addition to coping better with the usual chronic PTSD I still had and still do have. NPR did a story on that a few months ago.
http://www.npr.org/2017/05/31/530929915/research-shows-how-ptsd-can-trigger-growth-in-veterans
It sucks to have a near death experience. But if you learn from it, it can enhance living, really. Right now I'm teaching a summer school nursing class on death and dying and I teach 3 more every semester during the year.
Welcome. Sorry for what happened to you, but glad you found us. This is a healing place for processing that sort of thing.